Altitude at Via Day Camp

For our youngest participants who are entering the 3rd through 5th grade, we focus upon the emergence and growth of foundational skills.

These include practicing and developing basic social skills, such as:

Starting, maintaining, and ending conversations appropriately

Taking turns speaking and listening

Recognizing and understanding nonverbal cues

Expressing thoughts and opinions in a (helpful) way

Initiating interactions and gaining attention in positive ways

Sharing with others and taking turns when playing

Developing reciprocal friendships

Recognizing expected and unexpected behaviors

Realizing that there is more than one way to view a situation

Problem solving with others and resolving conflicts

Learning to be assertive in a polite way

In addition, we start to focus on learning and practicing basic executive functioning skills and coping strategies, such as:

Following directions

Improving attention

Controlling impulsive behavior

Increasing flexibility and ease of transitions

Managing and appropriately expressing both positive and negative feelings

Making healthy choices

Focusing on skill development at Altitude, our staff assists campers to engage in fun activities and reciprocal interactions with peers, all within a supportive environment.

Furthermore, teaching these skills within the context of a natural setting – summer camp – provides the potential for generalization to other settings (home, school, the community.) Acquisition of these basic skills also prepares our participants for learning higher-level skills, once they are ready to advance to our sleep-away program.